He first took us through some footwork from traditional Northern Russian Buza. This was some pretty active stuff and I decided to do it while holding a 50 lb weight. I am still paying for that. We also worked on some of the defensive hand motions but I really wanted to get some of the footwork ingrained so I can work on it here during solo training.
Here is a look at some Traditional Buza:Buza

We ended the session going over some basics of sword and buckler in the German tradition. My knee was a bit tweaked so I sat out and watched this which turned out just fine. At time si can get more just by watching something like this.

We then went into the house for a nice meal of black bread and borscht. Guest instructors are always welcome and well fed:)

On with the jackets for some sambo…
We each did two rounds of grip work and since we were in a gripping state of mind followed that with some work on breaking grips on the jacket and gaining a belt grip, either side over the back.

We then worked a cross lapel grab series…left hand to left lapel for a Podvhat (rising leg) throw, a ski lift of if all else fails a melnitsa(firemans) into a hip lock.

Out came the shillelaghs for a bit more work with the Footpad and the Cane text. A general review of what we did last week.for starters then we got into some specifics on the upward and straight cross stick strikes. Worked on the idea of a ready stance based on the info in the text as well as tried out some defenses listed from various attitudes.

We finished up the session with some Spanish knife work. First some basic stance and footwork then onto cambio with a focus on switching from a saber grip in the right hand to a ice pick grip in the left. We finished with the Sevellian Star.

We then went over the Fitzsimmons shift. We have done it before but it has been a while and I realized that this was something new to Chris so it seemed like a good subject for the day. We also worked in Biddle’s Killing shift and a few variations of our own on the concept. Once we had this ingrained a bit we geared up again and each boxed two more rounds with an emphasis on landing the shift.

Chris, Matt and I today…
2 rounds shadow boxing
About a half hour spent on a nifty fisticuff drill for dealing with hooks. Starting simple with a cover for lead hooks and then going more in depth ending up with covers, bobbing and weaving lead or rear hooks in real time.
We then worked a simple but nice combo I call the double half round blow. Take a look at it here:

We then sparred 2 rounds a piece, boxing very hard, probably the hardest we have gone ever. We had one KO. Hours later an I am still feeling the adrenaline rush.

We ended the session with knives, working through some of the Spanish material as well as the French material from Andre. We also did a brief overview of bowie use.

Still a bit under the weather…so no grappling this week. Next week we are on it though!